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[It's late, and people should probably be trying to sleep. That appears to be what the very grumpy figure on the feed is attempting to do, but it's cold and the ground is still a little snowy and he looks pretty miserable, given that there is what appears to be the entirety of a tent collapsed on him. He's also wrapped in about three sweaters and a coat, and looks incredibly unamused.]

[The camera pans over to a rather nervous-looking Rapidash, along with a Vulpix and an Onix who looks more confused than anything. The camera then turns around to display a somewhat annoyed-looking Kadabra, who just glances to the side in a 'look at this bullshit I have to deal with' expression before shutting off.]

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So they're like... you know how locker locks look, right? The ones I've seen in movies, with the big dial in the middle? Imagine those, but instead of the dial there's the image of a fruit in what seems to be plastic, and it flips open.

We had those, and put them in our Drivers, which look like... big giant belts. Flipping them open activates the armor corresponding to that particular Lockseed on all but the lowest-class ones. The low-class ones could have the 'lock' part unhooked like you were opening the lock which summons an Inves, which is a kind of monster from the Helheim Forest.

All of the Lockseeds weren't manufactured, though - they were originally fruit from the Forest that changed into a Lockseed when it was picked by someone wearing a Driver. Aside from the Energy Lockseeds, since those were artificially-made.

[Okay. York's learned to accept a lot of things here, like that fairy bulldogs can breed with ice weasels and make eggs, and teenagers can turn into hawks, and sometimes the dead don't stay all that dead. But, seriously.

What the fuck is Kamen Rider.]

...What? What--okay, no, hang on a sec, let me process.

[Processing. Processing.]

Okay, this Forest--you mentioned that before, in between the dimension rift stuff. I'm assuming it's not your average Hundred Acre Woods we're talking about here.

Okay, so... imagine a forest. A huge, giant forest. Now imagine that forest invades worlds and twists their inhabitants into monsters, if they survive.

The forest regularly invades other worlds, and mine is next on the list. Apparently the first discovery of it was about ten years ago, but the invasion of my world has been sped up dramatically. The one who controls the forest is the one who holds the Forbidden Fruit.

... It's also somewhat alive, and it's got a manifestation that looks human, even though he isn't. He claims that his role, the role of the Forest, is to 'evolve all creatures'. I don't think turning most of the people on Earth into largely-mindless creatures that attack each other is really 'evolving' humanity much. At least, not in any way that's good.

Oh. Huh.

Sorry, I guess 'kill it with fire' isn't something you can easily implement, right?

... Yggdrasill - the company that my brother worked for and the big company in the city - tried that for a while. It... worked to contain small breeches, but then they started getting large and larger, and people who were attacked by Inves got infected...

... It got out of control.

...Sorry to hear that, man.

That's what you're gonna be cleaning up, now? Getting that fruit thing, I mean, and getting them out of there.

More or less. Yggdrasill got labeled as a terrorist group as well, so... I imagine that I'll have to help clean that up, as well. I'm sure that if... no. Once everyone gets through this... there's going to be a lot of documents that need to be handed over. I don't know how bad things are going to be - as of maybe a... a week? A few weeks? Something like that... a short time before I was brought here the world economy was starting to collapse due to Yggdrasill's corporate infrastructure being brought down. A bunch of government officials all over the world had their hands in Project Ark, and once that was revealed they were forced to resign.

... I can't be certain, but it was likely Sengoku who leaked just who was involved with it.

All right, you had me and then you lost me. Should I be taking notes?

[He's joking, though. He settles into his seat and waves a hand briefly.]

I got tripped up at Project Ark and then Sengoku, I think.

Ryouma Sengoku, the man who developed the Drivers. He's... to call him a 'mad scientist' is about accurate.

[The other half of that... he runs a hand through his hair.]

So there's seven billion people on Earth. There's not enough materials or time to make seven billion Drivers, which would help people survive the Forest. Not guarantee their survival, but help it. The projected number that could be made over the next ten years - which is the time until the Earth was totally covered that was the working timeline we had until about a month or so before I was brought here - was one billion.

That was Project Ark - that only certain people could be saved. That only certain people would be saved.

I... the Inves that live in the Forest, the Overlords that rule them... I made a deal with one of them to try to up that number to half of humanity, to just get her to have the Forest leave them alone. The other half of humanity...

[He lowered his gaze, a pained smile working its way onto his face.]

... They'd be hooked up to a machine and their life force would be drained to try to revive the previous King of the Overlord's wife. That plan fell through, and there's no way Project Ark is working, so... I guess I have to go after the Fruit.

[York's quiet for a good, long time as he absorbs that. Finally, in the end, all he can think to say is:]

Damn, dude...

[Half of humanity. Six sevenths of humanity, if not, and if Delta were here, he could calculate that percentage to as many decimal places as there are, but that doesn't mean the loss is even imaginable.

How many did they lose to the Covenant? York doesn't even know.]

Hell, that's fucked up. That those were the options you all had, I mean. Son of a bitch.

God, I really hope you get that fruit.

... If I hadn't been so stupid... if I hadn't been so focused on just saving one person... I could have listened to Kouta. Sure, he's... he was... an idiot who ran into things blindly with no strategy or sense of what was going on, but... if I'd been there to support him instead of kill him, he could have won. He could have saved people and he would have done it right.

I bet we could have saved everyone. ... So I'll just have to do the best I can to do that, instead.

[York closes his eyes for a moment and remembers what it was to think that Carolina was alive, to burn everything he had waiting for her. Then to believe that she was dead, to come to terms with never seeing her again. And now to know, beyond all belief, that she survived them all, and that she's here, and that she's both forgiven him and let him go.]

Yeah. ...I know what you mean.

So for real, good luck, dude. Do better than I ever did.

... I'll try. Thanks.

[His Rapidash wanders over and nudges him in the side of the head, and he laughs a little bit.]

Hey there.

Your horse there telling you to get some shuteye, cowboy?

I think so. She's kind of low-energy a lot of the time, anyway.

Sleep well then, man. If you need help with your tent again, let me know.

Yeah. Hopefully tomorrow we can get pretty close to Ecruteak, and there's at least an inn there.

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